Muslim Brotherhood Statement: People Protect Legitimacy and Vote for New Constitution

Amid desperate and persistent attempts to keep Egypt in a permanent state of chaos and confusion, the Muslim Brotherhood and other patriotic pro-democracy parties and movements mobilize to defend the revolution, its achievements and the new constitution.

After the fall of the former regime, state institutions – the People's Assembly and Shura Council (the two houses of Egyptian parliament), the local councils and the Constitution – also collapsed. They had to be rebuilt, because the state cannot function or achieve stability without them.

The People's Assembly and the Shura Council elections were successfully completed, with Islamists winning a clear majority. Then, the Constituent Assembly (CA), tasked with writing a new constitution, was elected.

Then, hours before the results of the presidential elections were announced, the Supreme Constitutional Court disbanded the elected People's Assembly, at its first deliberation session to consider a complaint challenging the constitutionality of the law according to which parliamentary elections had been conducted, fast-tracking the case in a stupendously unprecedented way.

Thus the legislative and oversight authority was dissolved. We then had only an elected president, and a Shura Council with severely-limited powers. The country remained in a state of instability and constitutional vacuum.

Various political forces opposed to this homeland restoring stability did their best to disband the CA, too. First, they challenged its set-up in court. Then they repeatedly threatened to withdraw from the CA in session.

Then, again, they kept disrupting CA work from the inside, although everyone endorsed almost all articles of the Constitution. Also, they incited foreign powers against their own country, asking them to put pressure on CA members to write a constitution in line with a secular West vision.

However, the CA continued its work, overcoming all obstacles, until it produced the best constitution Egypt has ever seen. The President then set a date for a popular referendum.

Nevertheless, political forces opposed to the country's stability, determined to undermine the new government, organized demonstrations and sit-ins to protest against the President’s constitutional declaration which achieved some of the goals of the revolution and protected the CA and the Shura Council from treacherous plots to summarily disband them.

Forces opposed to Morsi and Islamists are out to cause more institutional vacuum, anxiety, chaos and confusion in the political scene. In a severe escalation, demonstrations were directed to the Presidential Palace – symbol of the State and the Government – amid calls to storm and destroy the palace. New unlawful and unacceptable calls to sidestep the people's choice began to appear yet again.

In fact, these calls ignore legitimacy – the presence of an elected Head of State chosen by the people in an undeniably democratic way. Furthermore, the attempt to prevent the popular referendum on the constitution can only be a stumbling block in the way of building the constitutional institutions along the path of stability that should lead to public safety and security, increase employment opportunities, raise production and attract investment.

Amid these unfortunate events and collusion against the best interests of the people and the homeland, the entire Egyptian people will protect constitutional legitimacy and the choices they made by their own free will. The people will come out to the ballot-boxes for the referendum on the constitution, and later for the forthcoming parliamentary elections.

Everyone should realize that approval of the constitution would immediately cancel all constitutional declarations, from the March 2011 Declaration, to the November 2012 Declaration. We are only days away from achieving all that.

In conclusion, we are confident that the Egyptian people who made this great revolution that impressed the whole world will not abandon democracy or their revolution, and must support the President they chose freely for the first time in history, and seek to achieve all revolution demands and objectives.